Insubstantial
You can assume a less solid form, with each Insubstantial rank becoming progressively less solid. You do not gain the ability to assume lower-ranked Insubstantial forms, but you can acquire a lower-ranked form as an Alternate FX of a higher-ranked one (see the Array structure in this chapter). You can switch between normal and Insubstantial form at will as a free action once per round. * Rank 1: You become fluid. You can flow through any sort of opening, under (or around) doors, through keyholes and pipes, and so forth. You cannot pass through watertight seals. You can automatically flow out of any restraint, such as a snare or grapple, that is not watertight. You automatically succeed on Acrobatics checks to escape from bonds or tight spaces. So you cannot flow out of a bubble completely enclosing you, for example, but anything less cannot hold you. You can exert your normal Strength and can still carry objects, although your manual dexterity may be limited (at the GM’s discretion). A fluid character may attempt to catch a falling person or object, cushioning the fall with the character’s flexible form. This requires one action, and reduces the falling damage by the cushioning character’s Toughness bonus (representing flexibility in this case). Both characters suffer any remaining damage. Higher rank insubstantial forms lacking physical Strength cannot attempt this. * Rank 2: You become a cloud of gas or fine particles. You have no effective Strength in gaseous form, but you are immune to physical damage. Energy and area attacks still affect you normally. You can flow through any opening that is not airtight. You can use your various other effects normally. * Rank 3: You become coherent energy. You have no effective Strength, but you are immune to physical damage. Energy attacks (other than the energy making up your form) damage you normally. You can pass through solid objects permeable to your type of energy, but energy resistant barriers, like heavy shielding or force fields, block your movement. * Rank 4: You become incorporeal. You can pass through solid matter at your normal speed and you are unaffected by physical and energy attacks. Sensory effects still work on you, as do effects with the Affects Insubstantial FX feat. Choose one other reasonably common effect that works on you while you are incorporeal. You have no Strength and cannot affect the physical world with other effects unless you apply the Affects Corporeal modifier. Your sensory effects work normally. Unless you have Immunity to suffocation, you must hold your breath while passing through a solid object, and you can suffocate normally. If you revert to solid form while inside a solid object for any reason, you suffer Fortitude-based lethal damage equal to the object’s Toughness. If you are not knocked unconscious by the damage, you’re immediately ejected from the object into the nearest open space. If you are knocked unconscious, you’re trapped inside the object and your condition worsens to dying on the following round. Power Level Cap Higher ranks of Insubstantial will effectively bolster a character's Toughness, as they can avoid ever-increasing categories of attacks. If a character can use this protection while still maintaining offensive output, then they will fall under this penalty. The following are the most common abilities an Insubstantial character can use offensively, and thus call for this virtual PL cap. A character with 1 rank of Insubstantial does not gain any virtual cap. With 2 ranks, Insubstantial counts as 1 ranks towards the Toughness PL cap. At 3 ranks, it instead counts as 2 ranks towards the PL cap. At 4 ranks, Insubstantial counts as 4 ranks towards the Toughness PL cap. * Affects Corporeal: The ability to attack freely while Insubstantial is significant, and Affects Corporeal allows for just that. * Sensory or Mental Attacks: Sensory and Mental affects can hurt Insubstantial characters, but they also allows a means by which the character can attack with impunity. The GM can feel free to reduce or eliminate these caps if a means of harming insubstantial characters is more commonplace than normal in the game. Extras * Affects Corporeal: This extra is required for any FX that works on corporeal targets while you are insubstantial at rank 2 or greater. * Affects Others: This modifier allows you to extend your Insubstantial FX to another character by touch, taking them Insubstantial with you. If you ever withdraw the FX while someone is inside a solid object, see the FX’s description for the unpleasant results. * Attack FX: Applied to Insubstantial, this extra makes it into a touch range FX able to turn targets Insubstantial. This is most effective for ranks 2 through 4, since the victim loses some or all ability to interact with the physical world. You need to grab a target in order to drag them inside a solid object unless the target is already helpless. * Extended Duration: Extending the FX’s duration to continuous allows you to remain Insubstantial until you choose to return to your corporeal form. * Innate: Use this extra if your character's form is naturally or innately Insubstantial, particularly if the FX is permanent in duration. * Progressive (+0/rank): You can assume lower ranked forms of Insubstantial, but you must progress through them in order to reach higher-ranked ones. For example if you have Progressive Insubstantial 3, you can assume fluid, gaseous, or energy forms, but to assume energy form, you must first progress through fluid and gaseous, becoming less and less substantial. Since you can only activate the FX once per round, it takes you three rounds of activating your FX to achieve. * Reduced Action: Becoming Insubstantial is normally a free action, meaning you can’t switch to an Insubstantial form when surprised, beaten on initiative, or otherwise unable to take action. At the GM’s option, applying the Action extra to use Insubstantial as a reaction allows you to switch forms “reflexively” in response to such hazards, even if it is not your turn, so long as you are still capable of taking action. * Selective: This extra allows you to selectively make some portions of your body insubstantial while keeping others substantial (or vice versa). This allows you to do things like reach through a wall, solidify your hand to pick up an object or tap someone on the shoulder (or punch them in the face), and become incorporeal again to withdraw it on the following round. * Subtle: This extra makes your Insubstantial nature less noticeable to observers. One rank requires a Perception check (DC 20) to detect that you are Insubstantial, while two ranks mean you look entirely normal in Insubstantial form (which may cause opponents to waste effort on you, not knowing that you’re immune to their attacks, for example). Flaws * No Effective Strength (–1/rank): This flaw applies only to rank 1 Insubstantial and removes your effective Strength while in that form, leaving you with limited ability to affect the physical world like the higher ranks of the effect. * Permanent: This flaw locks you in your insubstantial form; you cannot assume solid form. At the GM’s discretion, you can apply a +1 extra allowing you to revert to solid form as a free action and a sustained duration. If you’re unable to take the free action required, you automatically revert to your insubstantial form. Associated FX The following are some FX commonly associated with Insubstantial. * Damage Aura: An energy form may have a Damage Aura effect with the appropriate descriptor: electricity, fire, radiation, and so forth. A liquid or gaseous form might also be corrosive or poisonous, giving it a Damage Aura or another FX (like Drain) with the Aura modifier. * Dispersal: Liquid and gaseous forms might have Growth with the Dispersal flaw. * Disruption Attack: A common book trick of incorporeal characters is the ability to pass an incorporeal hand or limb through a target and partially solidify, creating a painful molecular disruption. This is an Affects Corporeal Penetrating Damage FX. It costs 3 power points per rank. * Drain: Some insubstantial forms have an Affects Corporeal Drain attack, like the life-draining touch of a ghost or toxin carried in a liquid or gaseous form. * Enhanced Movement: Gaseous, energy, and incorporeal forms are often lighter than air, allowing the character to move three-dimensionally. Flight effects associated with gaseous forms tend to be slow (low-ranked). Incorporeal forms may slowly float or fly at great speed. * Immunity: An insubstantial form may grant Immunity to certain effects or conditions. In particular, life support is a common effect of an insubstantial (and essentially non-human) form. * Nullify Electronics: The passage of some incorporeal or energy forms disrupts electronics. This is an Affects Corporeal Nullify Electronics FX with the Touch range flaw. Category:Rulebook Category:Characters Category:FX Category:Alteration FX